PORTLAND, OR – A federal judge has temporarily halted a proposed mergerΒ between supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons, an action that could scuttle the deal.
U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson issued the ruling Tuesday after holding aΒ three-week hearingΒ in Portland, Oregon.
Kroger and Albertsons in 2022 proposed what would be theΒ largest grocery store mergerΒ in U.S. history. But theΒ Federal Trade Commission sued earlier this year, asking Nelson to block the $24.6 billion deal until an in-house administrative judge at the FTC could consider the mergerβs implications.
Kroger bought Matthews-based Harris Teeter in 2014 for a reported $2.5 billion.
